Free Speech Doesn’t Protect Nazis. It Protects Us From Nazis

07/18/2018

It is probably true that the value of
some speech is less than the cost of the harm it imposes. But free speech
advocates don't defend the speech rights of Nazis because they believe that
Nazis have anything valuable to contribute to a marketplace of ideas. They
defend the rights of Nazis because Nazis with the freedom to speak can cause
less harm than Nazis with the power to regulate speech.

Narrowing the scope of free speech
protections to accommodate limitations on hate speech, or to ban Nazis, or to
shut Milo Yiannopoulos up, means reducing the scope of the individual right and
expanding the power of the state to regulate speech. In order to favor
expanding the power of the state to regulate speech, you have to trust the
state to wield that power judiciously, and not to abuse it or use it
vindictively or excessively.

Before you empower government to police
speech that is hateful or offensive, or speech that is deemed violent or
harmful, then you have to consider the possibility that it will not be your
sensibilities that determine which speech is beyond the pale.